


Intended Audience of One

by patchfire, raving_liberal



Category: Glee
Genre: Alive Finn Hudson, Angsty Schmoop, Confessing Feelings Through Song, Finn Is Also A Sad Sack, Fuckurt Trope Bingo, Love Confessions, M/M, Power Ballads, Sad Sack Puck, Singing, Tumblr: fuckurtweek
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-25
Updated: 2016-08-25
Packaged: 2018-08-10 22:05:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,814
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7862902
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/patchfire/pseuds/patchfire, https://archiveofourown.org/users/raving_liberal/pseuds/raving_liberal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It takes more than three songs.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Intended Audience of One

**Author's Note:**

> For the "Confessing Feelings Through Song" square of Fuckurt Trope Bingo 2.0!

_Late winter, 2010_

There isn't a reason for Puck to _not_ do a solo for the eighties-themed week. He agrees with Artie that almost every week in New Directions is eighties-themed, but he doesn't say anything, especially since Quinn likes the idea and everyone in the club thinks it's Puck’s job to keep her happy. Maybe it is. The baby’s due in a couple of months, and Puck doesn’t seem to have much else to do. The problem is that Puck doesn’t really want to keep Quinn happy beyond the obvious baby-related reasons. 

So, no, there’s no reason not to do a solo, and it might even make people happy that Puck’s participating or however Schuester’s phrasing it this week, so Puck takes the unusual for him step of looking up the official tab, then watches the official video three times on YouTube. Finally, he feels like he’s rehearsed enough. The eighties theme means he doesn’t have to make up a reason why he’s playing and singing “Right Here Waiting,” and it means he lets himself make eye contact during the song, going steadily around the room. 

Steadily around the room except for Finn. Finn probably would make eye contact, even though his ex-girlfriend is seven months pregnant with Puck’s kid, and even though they haven’t spoken in months, but Puck’s afraid that eye contact would give way too much away. He’s not singing for Quinn. He’s singing because of Finn, something he realized too late in his sophomore year, and something he isn’t sure he’s ready for Finn to realize at all. 

 

_Early autumn, 2010_

Puck holds the last “oh” at the end of “Grenade” while he simultaneously holds the chord on his guitar, and determinedly does not glance in Finn’s direction. If Finn’s figured it out this time, then Puck doesn’t want to see his immediate reaction, and if Finn hasn’t, Puck doesn’t want to make it too obvious for the rest of the club. It’s the fourth song Puck’s sung in glee club for Finn, even if only two of them were deliberately rehearsed and perfected first. 

Instead, Puck looks towards Tina, but that turns out to be a mistake. She makes a sad, sympathetic face at Puck, then glances in Finn’s direction. Puck makes the additional mistake of following Tina’s gaze, which leads him to look at Finn. Finn’s sitting next to Rachel, holding her hand, and looking around the room. Puck sighs internally. If Puck knows Finn—and he does—Finn’s trying to figure out which of the people in the room that Puck was singing too. 

Because Puck’s a glutton for punishment, he brings up glee club when they get to the locker room before football practice. “So, did I hit the right tone for Bruno Mars?” Puck asks Finn while they’re changing. 

“Guess it depends on what tone you were going for,” Finn says. 

“You know, the whole despondent-in-love thing Bruno’s got going on,” Puck says. “Almost desperation.” 

“Oh,” Finn says. “Well, yeah, you hit it pretty well, then.”

Puck is mostly an idiot, which is why he keeps going. “Yeah? Cool.” 

“Were you singing it to Tina?”

“Huh?” 

“You were looking at Tina while you were singing,” Finn says. 

“Oh, yeah, ‘cause you know, you look at a sympathetic member of the audience and all of that,” Puck explains. “Not _to_ Tina.” 

“Ohhhh, okay. Yeah, that makes sense.” Finn pulls his practice jersey on. “Ready?”

Puck nods, waiting until he’s pulling his own jersey on to sigh a little. He didn’t actually expect Finn to catch on, he reminds himself. “Yeah, ready.”

 

_Autumn, 2011_

Puck hears about Finn and the recruiter from Ohio State from multiple sources: Finn himself, Rachel at services, Beiste while Puck’s lifting over the weekend, and a late Sunday night text from Kurt who is apparently worried about his stepbrother. Puck nods a little as he reads the text. It confirms what he thought. He can sing a song to Finn, and maybe it’ll be obvious, but he’s been itching to do something, especially since Lauren walked away from their unorthodox arrangement. 

He considers finding the tab, but it’s a pretty simple chord progression, so Puck focuses on memorizing all the lyrics, then makes sure he lets Schuester know even before the meeting starts that he has a song to perform. Finn still looks pretty down, and Rachel and Kurt both seem excited that Puck’s singing. Puck figures Rachel might not be so happy by the time he finishes singing, but he’s going to do it anyway. 

Puck sings the entirety of the song feeling like he’s simultaneously holding his breath. Who else, after all, had a “Bad Day” over the weekend? Everyone else was flush with _West Side Story_ success or otherwise seemed upbeat. Finn is, as far as Puck knows, the only possible intended audience for the song. Finn doesn’t seem to realize that. 

As Puck sings “You kick up the leaves and the magic is lost,” he happens to look at Kurt, and that happens to be the moment that Kurt clues in. He finishes the song, puts away his guitar, and sits through the rest of the glee club meeting, mentally bracing himself. Finn didn’t realize, no, but his stepbrother did, and Puck only makes it half a hallway from the music room before he hears Kurt hurrying behind him. Puck sighs and decides to just rip the BandAid off, turning to face Kurt as he nears. 

“Hey,” Puck says. 

“Hi,” Kurt says, sounding sympathetic, at least. “This whole time?”

Puck shrugs. “I didn’t realize until a week or two after ‘Sweet Caroline’.” 

Kurt makes an equally sympathetic noise as he shakes his head. “Is the goal for him to notice or _not_ to notice?”

Puck licks at his lower lip, a little nervous. No one’s actually asked him about that part before. “If he noticed, that’d be an answer, you know?” 

“I hate to break it to you,” Kurt says, still sadly shaking his head, “but you _have_ met Finn, right? You’ll have to smack him with the clue-by-four.”

“Honestly? I thought ‘Bad Day’ was at least a clue-by-three,” Puck admits. 

“I’m not sure Finn would understand anything less than you making eye contact and slowly telling him, ‘Finn, I am singing this song about you’,” Kurt says. 

“Hey, he’s not that bad!” 

“He is about this, obviously.”

Puck sighs. “Well, he’s with Rachel anyway. Probably a silent point or whatever.” 

Kurt tips his head to the side. “A… silent point?”

“Yeah, you know. What’s the word? Mute.” 

“Oh dear,” Kurt says, pressing the back of his hand to his mouth to stifle a laugh. “Yes, I suppose it is a silent point, then.”

Puck gives Kurt a suspicious look. “Well, it’s not a loud one. I’m going to go sing to the ducks or something, at the park.” 

“I’m sure the ducks, at least, will appreciate it.”

 

_Spring, 2012_

Puck has mostly given up. He’s singing to Finn, sure, but mostly he’s singing for himself, letting go a little prematurely. They don’t have that many weeks before graduation, so he figures a good cathartic sad performance might help. He doesn’t let himself wait, either, but looks up all the lyrics the same day that Finn tells him no about LA. 

By now, Schuester can apparently read Puck’s face, because he just nods at Puck as the glee club meeting starts the next day. Puck deliberately changes some of the lyrics: three thousand miles away instead of ‘a thousand’, and four more years of school instead of ‘two more years of school’, but most of them are the same. 

Puck knows it’s possible that his voice is off-key on a few lines, but he keeps himself from doing something embarrassing like crying. He doesn’t look up during the song or immediately after, walking back to his empty chair near the end of the front row. A loud sniffle comes from the direction of Finn’s seat. Puck still determinedly doesn’t look up, slumping down and staring at his shoes instead. 

“Mr. Schue?” Finn says, still sniffling. “Can I go next?”

“Sure, Finn,” Schuester says. 

Finn walks to the front of the room, looking a little red-eyed, and after a muttered conversation with Brad the pianist, launches into a tortured, dirge-like rendition of Nazareth’s ‘Love Hurts’. By the time he reaches the part about being young and knowing it, Puck spares a quick glance around the room. Everybody else in the glee club looks uncomfortable, some (Rachel and Sam) more than others (Kurt, Tina, and for some reason, Artie). Finn, however, maintains _intense_ eye contact with Puck for most of the song.

When Finn finally finishes, Schuester claps his hands a few times. “Thank you for using your emotions so powerfully, Finn.” He looks like he wants to say something else, but Puck decides that’s mostly because Schuester looks as uncomfortable as Rachel does. Either out of the goodness of his heart or an extreme inability to read social situations, Joe leaps up to perform some Jesus camp song, and the rest of the glee club meeting goes on more or less like normal. 

After the last performance—a Santana and Rory duet, for some reason—everyone starts to leave the room. Puck stays in his chair, and out of the corner of his eye, he can see that Finn isn’t leaving yet, either. When Finn doesn’t move for a solid forty-five seconds, Puck straightens and sighs. He looks over at Finn, taking in the nearly-as-tortured-as-a-Nazareth-song appearance. 

“Finn?” Puck says quietly. 

“I changed my mind,” Finn says, sounding like he’s about to start crying. “I _do_ want to go to LA with you.”

Puck manages, if only barely, not to pump his arm in victory or some other probably inappropriate action. “Yeah?” he says, his voice still quiet. “Why?” 

“You know why,” Finn says. “Don’t make me say it. I just sang Nazareth, jeez.”

“I’ve sung Richard Marx!” Puck says. 

“Yeah, but that song is bad, and my song is awesome,” Finn says. 

“In my defense, it was eighties week,” Puck reminds him. 

“Yeah, okay, that’s fair.”

Puck laughs for a few seconds. “Okay. You really want to come to LA with me?” 

Finn nods. “Yeah.”

“Just the two of us?”

“Yeah,” Finn says. “Just you and me, and probably a couple power ballads.”

Puck grins. “Yeah, okay. One bed?” 

“I don’t know. You want to give me one more verse of ‘Hey There Delilah’ to help me make up my mind?”

Puck shakes his head and punches Finn’s upper arm. “I don’t know, I could move on to ‘You’re Beautiful’, but I need to save something for the drive out, too.” 

“Ouch! Okay, okay!” Finn says. “Save it for the drive!”

“Good,” Puck says, leaning over to kiss Finn. “You can sing _me_ ‘A Thousand Miles’ or something.”


End file.
